Photo by HMCC-AA Publications Team
We started a new series for our Access gathering this past Friday. It will be a semester-long series where we will cover some of the basics of the Old Testament and the New Testament. As the campus ministry executive team and I prayed about what to address in this season of ministry, we felt convicted that we had to help our college students have a strong biblical foundation.
After doing college ministry for many years, there have been some trends which started to disturb me. The four that stick out for me are: 1) lack of bible literacy; 2) lack of holiness; 3) lack of strong convictions; 4) lack of tenacious resolve.
While doing college ministry, it is easy to get focused on behavior modification. We assume that people are getting transformed because they exhibit all the “right” Christian behavior. But our HMCC history tells us that having all the right behavior is not the best indicator of how they will do once they graduate.
When the focus is placed too much on behavior, then we either produce spiritual Pharisees or discouraged followers of Christ. Correct behavior is always produced by correct feelings; and correct feelings are produced by correct thinking. To put it in another way, how we think affects how we feel and how we feel affects how we behave.
This is why the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Roman Christians wrote, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Ro 12:2).
I believe this series, “Blueprint” will help in the process of transformation for our college students as they renew their minds with the Word of God. We are going to give them a framework that will help them in reading and understanding God’s heart through His Word. Ultimately, we can provide the treadmill and dumbbells for working out, but the person has to do the exercise to see the results.
As the 2012 is fully underway, we are expecting God to do great things as we do our part!